Patna: The filing of nominations for the first round of the Bihar Assembly elections for 121 seats ended at 3 pm on Friday, amid unfinished seat-sharing negotiations within the Mahagathbandhan or the INDIA alliance and apparent unanimity among the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners.
Nomination papers will be examined on Saturday, and candidates have until the evening of October 20 to withdraw their applications.
Among the first filers were well-known politicians. Tejashwi Yadav, the head of the RJD, and Vijay Kumar Sinha, the BJP’s state deputy chief minister, also submitted their nominations on Wednesday. Tejashwi, who is running for office again from Raghopur, expressed confidence in winning a third consecutive term and brushed aside rumors that he might run for more than one seat. In an attempt to raise BJP morale, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta flew in with Sinha, who is aiming for a fourth term from Lakhisarai.
Several lists of candidates have been made public by the main NDA allies. In addition to four Muslims, more than half of the candidates for the 101 seats that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) will be running for in the assembly elections are members of the backward and extremely backward classes.
Like its ally, the BJP issued a second list of 12 names, bringing the total number of declared candidates to 83. The party is running for 101 seats. Folk singer Maithili Thakur, who was just admitted to the party and is running from Alinagar, and former IPS officer Anand Mishra, who is running from Buxar, are on the BJP’s list.
After winning 29 seats via the NDA’s seat-sharing mechanism, the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), led by Union Minister Chirag Paswan, unveiled its initial list of 15 candidates. Raju Tiwari, a former MLA and state president, is on the list and will run from Govindpur. The Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) and the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), two more NDA allies, would each put forward candidates in six constituencies.
On Thursday night, the Congress unveiled its initial list of 48 opposition candidates, which included incumbent MLAs like CLP leader Shakeel Ahmad Khan (Kadwa) and state unit president Rajesh Ram (Kutumba). The CPI(M) has nominated candidates from Bibhutipur (Samastipur), Manjhi (Saran), Pipra (East Champaran), and Matihani (Begusarai), indicating that left parties have also put up candidates.
Tej Pratap Yadav, a former minister from Bihar who was recently kicked out of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) by his father and party leader Lalu Prasad, filed his candidacy papers on Thursday from Mahua in the Vaishali district. Tej Pratap, who is currently leading his recently floated party, Janshakti Janta Dal, has revealed a list of 21 candidates for the election.
To present, the Aam Aadmi Party has declared 59 candidates for the election. Prasant Kishor, a former political consultant who is now a politician, revealed the names of 116 candidates for his Jan Suraaj party.
Clarity regarding coalitions and the remaining seat-sharing arrangements is anticipated in the days ahead as the first phase of the nomination process comes to an end, setting the stage for a fierce political battle throughout Bihar.
In the first phase, elections will be held in the districts of Patna, Darbhanga, Madhepura, Saharsa, Muzaffarpur, Gopalganj, Siwan, Saran, Vaishali, Samastipur, Begusarai, Lakhisarai, Munger, Sheikhpura, Nalanda, Buxar, and Bhojpur.
On November 6, the first phase of elections will take place. On November 11, 122 assembly seats will be up for election in the second and final round. Voter turnout is scheduled for November 14.
